Ig Nobel Prize Winners 2007
The winners of this year's were announced last night at a ceremony at Harvard University. Details . The Prizes celebrate actual research likely to make the public laugh and think simultaneously. This year's winners have not disappointed us.
A team from the University of Barcelona have discovered that "rats are unable to tell the difference between a person speaking Japanese backwards and somebody speaking Dutch backwards" -- and their efforts have been rewarded with this year's Linguistics Prize.
The Medicine Prize was shared by Brain Witcombe of Gloucestershire Royal NHS Foundation Trust and Dan Meyer for their insightul examination of the health consequences of swallowing a sword. Their research has proved that "swallowing many swords, strangely shaped blades, or being distracted when swallowing, could cause injury ... [and that] ... sword swallowers should not swallow swords if they already had a sore throat." Amazing.
I've saved the best for last. This year's Ig Nobel Peace Prize goes to the US Air Force Wright Laboratory "for instigating research and development on a chemical weapon that would provoke widespread homosexual behaviour among enemy troops". I kid you not -- the US Air Force has been spending tax dollars trying to create a chemical bomb that turns the enemy gay.
Comments
So the US Air Force is working on a something that turns straight men gay? Well I hear the Salvation Army is going them one better, they are working on a something that turns gay men straight!
This one is a real humdinger. I suppose it's not a bad idea, not unlike the old fairy tale 'love potion' idea, whereby enemies could be rendered ineffective by making them fall in love with each other.
Not only that: the Islamic world itself would turn upon Al Qaeda if they turned gay (after all, if Ahmadinejad is to be believed, there is no homosexuality in Iran). Mix in the grimy layer of self-loathing that inevitably would accompany such an outburst of queeristism and we may have a remarkably effective tool of international relations.
Yup, it seems that a gay bomb is just about the best strategy for dealing with the Middle East. A valiant effort!